Although the summer season usually means that the aquarium hobbies tend to slow down, that hasn’t stopped the rare fish from flowing into the U.S. The latest arrival is Chromis flavicauda, a deepwater Brazilian endemic damselfish which is very rarely collected since it only occurs in depths of over 200 feet and likely a relative of the newly described Chromis abyssus. Rare fish wholesale specialist Russo’s Reef has just brought in a little over a dozen of these amazing beauties and this batch seems to be especially robust and not suffering from decompression issues at all. These aren’t your run of the mill Chromis either: they sport a brilliant blue coloring as adults and they can flash their color in a way that is very similar to flashing tilefish. Furthermore, at almost 3″ long and 1″ deep, these jumbo Chromis are like little billboards of light and color. At least one of these specimens has already landed at Old Town Aquarium in Chicago and LiveAquaria should be posting some in the Diver’s Den soon. If you want one of these top-shelf damselfish don’t expect to be getting a whole school of them though, these Brazilian gems will likely be fetching between $150-200.
